68 CHARACTERAMIN FEATHERS. 
the watch for his prey? Indeed, sir, I wish 
the innocent sparrows no harm ; and besides, 
if you must know it, I ate an excellent game- 
breakfast two hours ago, while laggards like 
you were still abed.” In the winter, which is 
the only season when I have been able to ob- 
serve him, the shrike is to the last degree un- 
social, and I have known him to stay for a 
month in one spot all by himself, spending a 
good part of every day perched upon a tele- 
graph wire. He ought not to be very happy, 
with such a disposition, one would think; but 
he seems to be well contented, and sometimes 
his spirits are fairly exuberant. Perhaps, as 
the phrase is, he enjoys A?mself; in which case 
he certainly has the advantage of most of us, 
—unless, indeed, we are easily pleased. At 
any rate, he is philosopher enough to appreci- 
ate the value of having few wants; and I am 
not sure but that he anticipated the vaunted 
discovery of Teufelsdréckh, that the fraction of 
life may be increased by lessening the denomi- 
nator. But even the stoical shrike is not with- 
out his epicurean weakness. When he has 
killed a sparrow, he eats the brains first ; after 
that, if he is still hungry, he devours the coarser 
and less savory parts. In this, however, he 
only shares the well-nigh universal inconsis- 
tency. There are never many thorough-going 
